The authors of the study analyzed the average wage level of representatives of 30 different professions in small (fewer than 250 employees), medium (from 250 to five thousand) and large (over five thousand) firms in 46 European countries as of February 1, 2004.
Thus, according to the study results, the average hourly wage in European countries ranges from 27.89 euros in Denmark to 0.32 euros in Moldova. If we take the Danish wage level as 100%, European states are distributed by this indicator as follows. The top three, besides Denmark, are Switzerland and Luxembourg, where wage levels are 79% and 72%. They are followed by Norway (69%), Germany (63%) and the Netherlands (61%). The dozen leaders also include Italy (seventh place - 60%), Great Britain (ninth place - 58%) and Sweden (12th - 54%). Russia in this list, together with Romania, is in 40th place.
According to the organization, the official hourly wage in the specified category here does not exceed 4% of the Danish level, which in absolute numbers is just over one euro. Only Bulgaria (3%), Serbia (3%), Albania (2%), Ukraine, Belarus and Moldova (1% each) lag behind it.
For comparison, according to FedEE calculations, a middle manager in a company of 500 people with a 35-hour working week in Russia earns 3.6 thousand euros per year, in France - 43.3 thousand euros, and in Germany - 55.9 thousand euros. As for the dynamics of wage growth in Europe, Slovakia takes the leading place here, where in 2003 wage growth was 11.3%. It is followed by Estonia (9.8%) and Latvia (9.6%). Portugal became the leader in decline, where the average salary dropped by 1.8% last year.